so, in my opinion, they could've either ditched the idea of ranked/unranked altogether, stop the unlocks and statistics, and concentrate on the game and its mechanics. If it's fun, people will keep playing.
Or they should've stayed on their original path and let people unlock stuff, punish padders and cheaters alike. But nothing in between.
The next game may have something besides the limited and normal edition, the "unlocked flatrate edition". You'll have everything unlocked right away and a flatrate to all the DLC... goes for 149.99$... sounds great, doesn't it?

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Interesting points.

Imagine a BF4 without any unlocks & stats, with the devs stating "we realized it shifts the players focus back to what really counts in gaming - pure fun. win a match, loose a match and interact with your squad - thats all"

It's not like I care that people will get all the unlocks faster, but I don't like people encouraging this kind of crap by buying it.

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Exactly, that's the point.

You know, I always thought "prestige mode" was a stupid idea. But in this context it sounds like a great solution. The people with little time will still unlock their stuff but it won't take them forever (I think one Prestige in CoD:BO took me around 24 hours). Those who want to keep ranking up, keep unlocking stuff will get something else on top (something better than little stickers, dog tags and other useless stuff would be great).

@dr: Yes of course I'd buy it. The one reason I like unlocks for is that you get everything in small doses so you get to know it better and may find something you like that would've gone unnoticed otherwise.
Apart from this (which can also come after you've played a game for a longer time) I really don't need any unlocks or statistics to have fun with a game.
We played CoD 4 for over two years so everyone had max rank after a few months. We still had our fun with it so we kept playing. There's really no need for the additional stuff. It can be nice but I really don't like how seriously it's being treated by these companies (and obviously some gamers).

I have to be honest when trying to figure out how I feel about games with statistics, and unlocking with experience.

First I was really pleased to see all these, see how I was doing etc. I want more, more and more. While I wanted those stats to "look" good, my game started to go into more of executing and keeping my stats going to right direction, instead of just having fun. And I need to switch weapon, all unlocks done, next, next, next, etc.

It even went so far that I got a bit of angry to my friends, during games we were losing, who I felt weren't on par with me, by skill or by how seriously we must to be good. You know, little remarks on headset, or a bit annoyed replies etc.

Then I realized what made the games with no stat padding or ranking, or unlocks so good: You concentrated only on winning.

If people would not see who got most points, who got most kills, who got what. Only the winning team, I truly believe BF as a gaming experience would be better(see, I'm not BF veteran, no experience from day 1 on this franchise).

If there would be only one stat for player visible, would be: Skill factor. And it would not be explained how it is gotten, people could not start to pad it, nor there would be no point playing lone wolf and neglect team work.

It even went so far that I got a bit of angry to my friends, during games we were losing, who I felt weren't on par with me, by skill or by how seriously we must to be good. You know, little remarks on headset, or a bit annoyed replies etc.

Then I realized what made the games with no stat padding or ranking, or unlocks so good: You concentrated only on winning.

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SO true.

Back in CS1.3 i was constantly LMAO to everyone & everything going mad, basically i only did crazy things just to shock ppl and make it as much fun as possible. And after a while i realized that when i was having the best fun i usually was the best player on the server.

"If there would be only one stat for player visible, would be: Skill factor. And it would not be explained how it is gotten, people could not start to pad it, nor there would be no point playing lone wolf and neglect team work. "

I think the term Skill Factor is dubious. Really, what IS skill? Knowing how to exploit each and every glitch? Who can tap the mouse faster? I have a buddy with a pretty good stat setup, but even he admits most of his kills are backshots. Infact I`ll bet most peeps get their largest amount of kills by surprising the enemy in BF 3 either by luck of a backshot or surpise.

I do agree about the stats thing. I could care less about em. I like the old school way of gaming. Make a game, balance the weaps so they more or less mimick their real world counterpart, and then let everyone get on with the gaming. Done.

But it seems the kiddies these days are not interested in that. They need Stats. They NEED their Egos stroked. They NEED to see themselves Lording it over another by a statlist. As apposed to how we used to do it. Just go ingame.

"waaah I need to see how I measure up in teh world!!!" *sniffle*

"You concentrated only on winning"

I remember when we didn`t concentrate ONLY on winning. I remember when no one cried the blues cause they had lone Wolves on their side. I remember when the Devs just made a game and you joined in, did your best and lived with the outcome. Win.... or lose. I remember when anyone could join a side and just play the game their way. And no one whined to the Devs, and the Devs didn`t rebalance the game on the fly or use bull**** rock paper scizzors balancing to FORCE everyone to hold hands to placate the Whiners.

Whiners who wanna win so bad they have no problems with Forced gameplay attributes.

I remember when most of the time, gaming was fun. I also remember when the fun started to get balanced out of games. Oh, I had FUN cause I was playing with my buds. Now.... buds are not FORCED to watch others backs. But going into a game with Strangers got to be no fun...... real fast. All because of the above stuff.

Peeps worrying bout Stats and Lone wolves not playing nice nice, and Dev Teams adding bull**** gameplay balancing used to "encourage=FORCE" a certain style of gameplay. Peeps using every exploit/glitch so they could be competitive..... the lists go on and on.

This became more important than fun. It became more important than the fair play of just playing the game the way the Devs intended.

Rifle wont make a difference, once SV98 is unlocked, which is really early, you already have decent rifle. Before SV98, just use sniper class with shotguns or such (or use the default ones, they aint that bad)? xD There are MANY ways to level up a class without using it's weapon (using generic weapons for example). Better than buying weapons imo. For me, unlocking is fun, not a work.

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This.

All I use is the SV98 when I play as Recon. It's the first one you unlock and its an awesome gun.

@gaizo: Well, I think they shouldn't punish stat padders and boosters anymore if they offer a shortcut. It'd still be a stupid thing to have then but at least it would be even.

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I don't care about stat padders either (Metro is sanctioned and that's stat padders' playhouse), but unlocks in BF3 are fundamentally different from stats and your analogy is flawed because of that. Unlocks is nothing but time spent, while stats are averaged in (at least ones that matter like k/d ratio and spm).

Stuff that bugs me about this DLC is that massive list of unlocks exists (is it too much to ask to have games where it's just fun to play, instead of following a virtual carrot on a stick?), how many people think it matters at all when it's just nothing but time spent (if anyone thinks unlocks in BF3 are same as k/d ratio or spm then they have no idea what they are thinking about) and people willing to spend money on this horrible deal.

Why is this deal so horrible? Because unlocks are not that much different from your default weapons. Sorry to disappoint, but if you think you will be better at recon because you can't use the starting semi auto snipers, then be prepared to be let down. It has nothing to do with the gun because starter weapons are so darn good in this game.

Basically even if you buy the whole package for $20 (half price), you get nothing substantial for the price. Wooo you get to use some gun models skins bit earlier than you would've, but it does so little to actual gameplay.

And if you can't enjoy the game with default guns, you probably shouldn't be playing it in the first place.

It's not flawed at all, at least as long as you're not the "perfect" gamer. I usually do better if I can play the class I prefer and my results usually improve the more unlocks I get (vehicles especially).
I played recon for a while to get the SOFLAM and you can't imagine how often I jumped out of a vehicle, looking like a dumba**, realizing that I had no repair torch with me...

It's just a minor issue though as I don't care much for my stats. The bigger problem is where all this leads to and I don't like that at all.

As a recon I'll usually swap to a pistol without even thinking about it before entering a vehicle. If I have to get out and get into some random close range spammage fight I've already got the pistol handy.

Vehicle unlocks matter, sure. That's because with vehicles in BF3 it's either you have the upgrades or you don't.

But with small arms, after 20 ~ 30 kills you pretty much get all the necessary tools and it doesn't take 30min or more to get the ones you need. So having every unlocks doesn't reflect on your stats at all, unless you are comparing stats between people who played for about 20 minutes total.

That's why that analogy is flawed. Unlocks = time. Stats (not padded or boosted of course) = how you play in that time.

Someone can play ****ty with 0.5 k/d ratio and 200 spm for 100 hours and get most of the unlocks because that person played a lot. But having all the unlocks won't get you 2.5 k/d ratio and 600+ spm.

Games could be played over Local Area Network without the need of a Constant Internet Connection and we could modify those games with the only limit being our imaginations.

The companies that made those game got ideas from those modifications that we made and they made new games inspired by those modifications and the new games went on to become immensely popular for many reasons.......

Then those companies realized they can make money by adding extra content to those games.

They then stopped supporting the players that supported them by removing the ability to modify their games with the reason "IT IS TOO DIFFICULT FOR US TO CREATE THOSE TOOLS AND FOR YOU TO USE THEM" .. oryly?? .. Instead only focusing on themselves and how much profit they can create from their games.

Those companies then ask us, the players of their new razzle dazzle game for ideas on what we would like to see in upcoming "extra content".

@corrupt: True, it still doesn't help a lot if you had the typical engineer equipment in the back of your mind. No rockets, no repair torch. It definitely looks silly if you try to "harm" a tank with a 9mm round

@gaizo: Weapons won't matter much, very true. As I said, vehicle unlocks and equipment are the difference for me. If you've never used any of the "universal" weapons you're pretty much screwed (at least for a while) when you're using one of the other classes for the first time but you'll get your a** handed back to you for sure if you're using a vehicle for the first time. Especially at this stage of the game, where even the less experienced people have at least some of the basic unlocks, it would be quite hard for a beginner to unlock something.
It wasn't any of my main concerns to begin with but I guess it would make all those angry that care alot for their stats.

So after a long hiatus of playing BF3/COD i decided to jump in and try the new maps in BF3 seeing as i bought the limited edition of the game - you know the retail version the has LIMITED EDITION across the middle and the orange triangle in the top left.

But no i can't join these maps, and as far as Manish from EA live support is concerned i have the standard edition. WTF.

Contact the EA support over the phone, that will get you going in the right direction.

When I had problems with Halo 2 PC not working on my Windows Live account I ended up taking Photographs of my game case, game cd, product key for the game and emailing them to Microsoft support, I spent a very long time talking to them over the phone.. but after a while I got what I wanted..

I would assume EA would do the same, keep at them and they will give you what is rightfully yours.